House Appropriations Committee limits forensic facility development pending further legislative action

The House Appropriations Committee on May 19 approved a committee amendment to S193 that prevents the Agency of Human Services from advancing development of a proposed forensic facility beyond what is required to complete a feasibility plan unless the General Assembly enacts further legislation.

The amendment, read aloud to the committee, would add a subsection to section 7 of the bill stating in part: "Absent further legislative enactment by the general assembly, the agency of human services and its department shall not advance the development of the forensic facility other than what is required to complete the feasibility plan required by this section." The language was presented by the committee as a constraint on next steps pending additional legislative authorization.

Committee members moved and seconded the amendment; the clerk called the roll and the recorded responses were affirmative. Members who were explicitly named on the roll call and recorded as voting "yes" during the proceedings include Representative Feltus, Senator Conensa and Senator Wiki. After the amendment passed, the committee voted to approve S193 as amended; the roll call again recorded affirmative responses from members named during the vote including Representative Blumley and Representative Dickerson. The transcript shows the votes as recorded in favor; individual negative or abstaining votes were not recorded in the provided excerpt.

The chair characterized the change as a committee amendment and thanked staff for quickly preparing the language. Committee business then moved on to scheduling, with the chair noting the afternoon docket would include S323 (a miscellaneous measure) and two cannabis-related bills listed as 278 and 230.

The committee approved both the amendment to S193 and S193 as amended by recorded roll calls during the May 19 meeting. The amendment narrows the bill's operational scope by withholding authorization for work beyond completing the feasibility plan until further legislative action occurs.